


Don't Scare Easy

by LyaStark



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Halloween, Modern Westeros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-27 18:26:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12587924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyaStark/pseuds/LyaStark
Summary: Dany and Jon spend their first date in the Castle Black Haunted House.





	Don't Scare Easy

The blood was too thick, the severed limbs looked fake as hell, and the witch kept coughing in between cackles. All in all, as far as first dates went, Dany ranked this pretty low, even with her limited experience.

She and Jon Snow strolled side by side through the Castle Black Haunted House as calmly as though they were taking an afternoon walk through a sunlit park. They both had their hands in their pockets and neither had said much since arriving.

_He’s probably disappointed that I’m not clutching his arm and screaming every time someone jumps out at us,_ she realized. Doreah and Irri had said as much when they found out where they were going.

“Guys think haunted houses are good dates because you’ll be close together holding hands in the dark with your hearts racing,” Irri said. “He thinks you’ll hook up sooner. Everyone knows that.”

“Nothing makes you fall in love faster than being petrified,” Doreah agreed. “You might have to fake it though.”

Dany had played the naïve, inexperienced young girl not so long ago with men who were eager to dismiss her. She had _been_ a naïve, inexperienced young girl not so long before that. Playing that role with a guy she liked – a guy she wanted to really know and like her – wasn’t at all what Dany wanted.

As they turned around the next corner, they placidly endured a man in a giant white rat costume leaping into their path and wailing. Once he retreated back into the corner, the pair continued on.

“You don’t scare easy,” Jon said.

Could she tell him that she had seen things far scarier back in Essos? Could she tell him of the real mutilated corpses and the unspeakable living conditions she had seen? Could she tell him of the living men she had faced who were far more terrifying than some costumed rat with a cleaver?

No. At least not on their first date. She was an average high school girl now. Coming to Westeros was her chance to be the normal teenager she’d missed out on being for so long.

_Maybe I should gasp and grab him when we go into the next room,_ she thought. _I can pretend I have a phobia of … whatever is in there._

But when the time came, she couldn’t do it. The witch and her talking heads were too bizarre to freak out over, especially since the witch kept kissing them.

“You don’t scare easily either,” Dany said instead. “Or are you putting on a brave show for me? I haven’t seen you jump once. It’s alright. You can hold my hand if you need too.”

Jon laughed. “I came here every year since I was seven and I worked here last season. I know every trick before it happens.”

“I’m surprised you’d want to come back if you know it so well.”

“I had great memories here,” Jon explained. “On our second time coming, Robb and I snuck off from our parents and tried to scare the other patrons like we worked here. Uncle Ben had to snatch us up and carry us out.”

Even in the dark, Dany could see the smile pulling at his face.

“Just last year, I was dressed up as a wicked looking ghost. When my siblings came through, I terrified my little brother, Bran, so bad he let out this high pitch scream and clutched our sister. Arya, she didn’t scream though.” He chuckled affectionately. “She punched me and yelled at me for scaring her little brother. I told her that was the point and that’s when she knew it was me. She shoved me and hugged me and we all laughed. Bran came through three more times that year.”

It sounded so foreign and … delightful to Dany; his description of the large family he had. All she’d ever had was one brother, and not even that anymore.

A grumpkin jumped out from behind a fake tree.

“Hey, Pyp,” Jon said.

“Shut up, man,” Pyp hissed, retreating back behind the tree. “You’re ruining the effect.”

Dany laughed. “And here I thought that was a real grumpkin. You just had to ruin it for me. I guess that wasn’t a real giant rat back there, was it?”

“No, the Rat Cook’s still prowling the Nightfort, last I checked.”

“Rat Cook?”

“You never heard the story?” he asked.

“I grew up in Essos,” she reminded him. “The only Westrosi stories I know are the mainstream ones from the south.”

_Where my family lived before I was born,_ she didn’t say.

“Oh, that’s right. You speak common so well I forget sometimes.”

Jon reached out his hand and she instinctively took it. He drew her into an alcove and started filling her in on the local horror stories. They ranged from the ridiculous to the horrifying.

“Why doesn’t the Night’s Watch use the Nightfort as it’s haunted house?” she asked after learning of the thing that came in the night.

“The place is a ruin.” He shrugged. “Besides, who’s to say we wouldn’t find the real thing there instead of costumes?”

“You believe in monsters?”

“Well…I’ve s-”

They both gasped, drew together, and shielded their eyes as a bright light flared on them.

“Hey Jon! You came with a date this time. Shouldn’t you two be sucking face right about now?”

“Shut up, Grenn!” Jon hissed. “Get that light out of our faces. What in the seven hells are you doing?”

“Making sure the customers don’t start screwing in the dark corners,” his friend said. “You know the drill. C’mon, get back into the flow.”

Hand in hand they rejoined the “flow.” Dany started thinking about where they might after leaving Castle Black when they entered a room very different from the others.

“What’s this supposed to be?” Jon wondered. “This isn’t one of the usual rooms.”

The walls were painted a lovely dark blue with silver-purple stars. Otherwise, it was bare and seemingly innocent. Naturally, that put Dany on edge for the first time since entering the haunted house. She pulled Jon back, when he began stepping through the door.

“Wait,” she said.

Jon raised his eyebrows at her. “This is when you finally get scared.”

She dropped his hand and crossed her arms over her chest. _Let him trigger whatever this is,_ she decided.

“Maybe we took a wrong turn,” he said strolling the rest of the way in and looking around at the bare walls. “This could be some early set up for some Christmas thing they’re planning.”

Dany must have seen the sudden movement before he did. A piece of the painted blue and silver wall itself was dethatching itself and lunging toward him. But all she could yell in warning was, “Jon!”

For his part, he let out a scream and a curse. It took a moment for Dany to realize, but the piece of wall that tackled Jon was a slim, laughing figure in a full bodysuit the same color as the rest of the room. It didn’t bring Jon down. The figure’s arms wrapped around his neck and he held its form, now laughing too.

“Scared you!” a girl’s voice boasted.

“You did, little sister,” Jon agreed, still laughing. “No one said you were working here this season.”

“That would’ve ruined the surprise.”

He set her down on the ground and turned to Dany. Looking at the girl, it was hard to tell what she looked like exactly, but her face seemed to be lean and narrow like Jon’s.

“Dany, meet my little sister, Arya. Arya, meet my, ugh… Dany.”

“ _Your_ Dany?”

“Just say ‘Hi’ and we’ll let you get back to work.”

“ _Hi_ Dany,” Arya said and exaggeratedly holding out her hand.

Dany shook her hand, smiling. “Nice to meet you. I heard you punched Jon last year.”

Arya grinned at that “Yeah, well, Rickon punched me when Bran and Robb brought him through last night, so it’s a family thing. Jon really likes you, you know. He told me that-”

“That’s enough.” Jon ran a hand over his sister’s rubber-covered head, affectionately. “Get back to work or I’ll tell Mormont you’re slacking.”

“Yeah, get out of here,” Arya returned. “I hear more people coming.”

On their way out, Dany watched her flatten herself to the wall again, blending in with the matching paint.

In the process of leaving Castle Black, their fingers brushed against each other before threading together.

“I’m jealous,” Dany said.

Jon turned to her, startled. “Of…” 

“Your family. All the good memories you have. You’re so close with your siblings. I…”

She trailed off and Jon seemed to know not to press her. He just squeezed her hand and rubbed circles over the back of her hand with his thumb.

“Sorry,” she said, not even fully understanding why she was sorry. “I’m not a good date for a haunted house. You should bring someone who scares more easily next time.”

“No, you’re the perfect date,” he insisted. “I like girls who don’t scare easy.”

_Irri might be right,_ she realized. _The haunted house might guarantee we hook up sooner._

Dany kissed Jon firmly, but casually, yet she saw that he looked startled as she pulled away.

“Come on.” She tugged him toward her car. “Let’s get something to eat.”


End file.
